The Environmental Footprint evaluates, calculates and sometimes weights the main potential environmental impacts of a product (HAP), organization (HAO) or service, based on a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) in accordance with international ISO standards. The international technical reference standards for LCA are UNE-EN ISO 14040 and UNE-EN ISO 14044.

The Environmental Footprint should not be confused with the Ecological Footprint, which is an environmental impact indicator that reflects the impact of human activity on the earth's resources and is measured in Hectares per capita.

At the European level, the Commission, within the Single Market for Green Products[1] initiative, has published a Guide for calculating environmental footprints of products (Product Environmental Footprintt, PEF) and organizations (Organization Environmental Footprint, OEF). The environmental footprint seeks to homogenize and unify the different methodologies that exist in this regard in the EU member countries.

Based on the aforementioned Guide, a series of pilot projects have been developed since 2013 and with an estimated duration of 3 years, with the aim of evaluating the suitability of the proposed methodology. In November 2015, the Mid-term conference on the Environmental Footprint pilot phase took place,[2]​ held in Brussels. In April 2018, the first PEFCR Rules for PEF[3]​ were published for products such as computer equipment, wine, pasta, or food for pets and dogs.

The European Commission's Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) uses a methodology similar to Environmental Product Declarations (EPD),[4]​ citing the same reference standard, UNE-EN ISO 14025, as well as international LCA standards. In the case of construction products, DAPs use the European Standard EN 15804[5]​ and are certifications that are increasingly used in public procurement, included, for example, in the General Registry of the Technical Building Code.[6]​.

The calculation of the environmental footprint involves the analysis of sixteen environmental impacts. Each of these impacts must be calculated according to the international methodology that the European Commission has considered most appropriate in each case: